My kenmore 253 upright freezer/fridge is not cooling the fridge part correctly. It's cool but not cool enough to keep the food fresh. The freezer works well sometimes. And sometimes it seems that it's not that cold either. I hear a constant noise. Not a loud one just a slight humming but never a fan running. What is the problem? A fan? Which one?

There are so many things that can make your fresh food side not cool. Usually, it is a frosted up evaporator, which is blocking the air flow of cold from coming from the freezer to the fresh food section. This can be caused by a bad defrost timer, a bad defrost thermostat, a bad defrost heater, or a bad control board. It could be a week compressor that is only strong enough to cool the freezer, the evaporator fan may be bad, which blows the cold air from the freezer to the fresh food section, the damper control going from the freezer to the fresh food section, can be stuck in the closed position, or in rare cases, the light in the fresh food section can be staying on, or even the condenser fan that is responsible for keeping the compressor and condenser from getting to hot, may be bad. This is usually behind the bottom of the fridge. You might also have a dirty condenser, which is the coil that is usually underneath the fridge. So you are most likely going to have to call for service.

dont know model, do know temps. The fridges highest temp is 5deg c, preferably between 1 and 4, if freezer goes above minus(-)18deg c your are in danger zone, there should be a regulator control in the fridge, usually on left or right hand side near front(door)

Hi,

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heatman101

Good day,
There was a time when most Kenmore refrigerators were produced by whirlpool, but no more. A model number would help. So the answers are generic.
1. The defrost system failed. Tell-tail signs included frost building up on rear panel of freezer comportment. The system is made up of three parts, and is the most common cause for your problem.
Look here for an idea on how the system functions..

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/howdefrostworks.shtml

2. The fan motor in the freezer compartment failed, not discharging cold air to the fridge compartment. You should be able to hear the fan running, when you open the freezer door.
3. Lights not going out when the fresh food compartment door is closed.
4. On some versions, if the freezer control is set too old, it will deny the fresh food compartment enough air to cool.
5. On other styles the control for the fresh food compartment is pneumatic (opens and closes to allow more or less air in as needed). This control can fail shut, not allowing any cold air to enter the fresh food compartment.

Iced-over evaporator coils, accompanied by a non-chilled fresh food compartment, happened in my GE side-by-side (model GSS20IEMDWW). For me,the problem was caused by a faulty temp sensor in the fresh food side. That sensor never signaled the computer that the temp in the fresh food side was cool enough, so the compressor ran constantly.

Since the compressor was running constantly, the evaporator coils (back wall of the freezer compartment) eventually iced over (took about a week).Since the fan that draws air over the evaporator coils could no longer move any air (due to the icing), the temperature in the fresh food side got warmer as well.

The fresh food side is chilled through a hole with a motorized door at the top of the dividing wall between compartments which opens when the fresh food side needs cooling. If no air is moving in the freezer compartment, temps in the fresh food compartment climb.

I replaced the temp sensor in the fresh food side and solved the problem for a while.

I bought a pair of thermometers at a kitchen store and put one in the freezer compartment and one in the fresh food compartment so that I could occasionally check to see if it made sense for the compressor to be running (ie, was it really necessary to be trying to cool either compartment, or were they already cold enough).

About six months later I had the coil icing problem again. This time the fresh food side seemed cool enough (according to the thermometer as well as the fact that the flapper door would close, indicating that the computer knew to not try to additionally cool the fresh food side).

The thermometer indicated that the temp in the freezer compartment was cold enough, but the system computer continued to run the compressor. So I replaced both temp sensors in the freezer compartment - which solved the problem again. (My fridge is about seven years old.)

If you are going to replace any of the temp sensors, replace them all under the principle of "if one failed, the rest will soon fail too".

Use a website like www.partselect.com to look up a parts diagram for your fridge and see if you can order just the temp sensors. Other websites (www.repairclinic.com and www.appliancepartsworldwide.com) may also be helpful. I have no affiliation with any of the sites I just mentioned - I'm just posting them as resources.

The light indicates the need for a new battery (9V)

if there is frost build up on rear wall of freezer section the unit is not going through defrost cycle which builds up frost on evaporator and restricts cold air flow to the fresh food section. one of three things are bad. defrost heater, defrost thermostat or defrost timer. if no frost on rear wall you might be low of freon.

Really most folks have to keep their setting on their fridge on about a 6-7 or-8 setting with the amount of food that is kept in the fridge now.
YOU CAN KEEP AN EYE ON THE RELATIVE temp if you like by placing a fridge thermometer in the appliance. Optimal fresh food should be around 40-43 degrees F on average to keep things on the cooler side without freezing.
Hope this helps

not necessarily, is it maintaining temp? all food staying frozen? especially ice creams if stored in there. most newer freezers displace the heat generated while cooling the food through copper lines running through sides of unit, helps to cut down on air temp differences between the inside (0 degrees) and outside temp to prevent moisture and possible condensation causing premature rusting of unit